Eastbound (and then down)

 On my trip south from Alaska, I began by flying to seattle, except that I didn't make it to seattle, the rains were too strong over the airport, so we flew in circles for a while before landing in Bellingham.  I wanted to go to Bellingham anyways, so I just got off the plane, but before I did, I took a few pictures out the window of the plane at the lightning that started while we were on the ground.

 These are just 5-10 second exposures out the window, but there was some exciting electricity in the air.

 I spent a week in Bellingham before heading out east, then exploring around in Glacier National Park with Lindsey.  We found some White crowned sparrows...

 And a nice little waterfall..

 And the pool of water at the base of the falls was very cool.  It was so clear.  I think the clarity of the water comes from the rocks being so old.  They are up to 1.6 billion years old here.

 We found a few meadows to look for moose in, but the moose were hard to find.  But find one we did!

 It was on the side of the hill.  Most of the animals around here are far away and hard to see.  Lindsey is great at spotting them, fortunately.

 We went up to Iceberg lake and the wind was howling and cold, but it was pretty, and then we had a bunch of huckleberries, which were delicious.

 On the way back we found some quaking aspens and some fall colors.  Very pretty.

Our last night had a splendid sunset with fierce winds coming down off the mountains.  I didn't sleep much that night from the wind buffetting the truck, but it's been a memorable experience. 

WND end of season video

here's a video I made of the stuff I saw this summer.

Final Alaska Week

 What a week!  My favorite week of the season!  Also my last week of the season.  I started it out by going for a hike in Ketchikan, and I managed to find a little meandering river that was chock full of salmon. 

 It winds around through a cool little canyon

 Then I had a nice kayak up the river at the highest tide I've ever seen at Walker Cove, and I got way up the river, further than I've ever got before.  There were some Harlequins up there, also lots of salmon, and a few bears, but I didn't see the bears.

 I did, however, find a bear in Anan Creek Bear Observatory, and got some nice close looks

 It looked back

 And here it is eating some Stink Curant Berries. 

 Then we went to the Keku islands, and I got a skiff tour, and found about 60 whales that went about their business around me

 Also a Common Murre

 Then we took everyone out cruising for critters and found the whales, an elephant seal, and finally, Orca! 

 Here are some shots of them!  They hung out with us for a long time, we stopped, shut down the main engines and sat dead in the water for about 45 minutes and they circled and looked at us a while.  When we finally started up again and began to move off they began to slap their pectoral fins as if to tell us not to go, or to wave us goodbye

 The next day was Robert and Crow and I got another skiff tour and found more whales

 The whales got real close

 and some of our kayakers came out and the whales passed close to them as well.

 Here is some whale poop.  Its mostly krill, I think, because of the color.

 And a nice look at some tubercles

 Then we went to Dawes glacier again, and found some seals

 and then we had a really cool calving, where the ice hit the water and then a gigantic plume of spray went way way up, almost twice the height of the glacier

 More seals on ice

 That evening, we had some northern lights.  A perfect way to end the trip

 Here's another shot of it.

So I'm done for the season, and then I'll go begin driving down for my wintertime of playing in mexico

To ketchikan

 This was my second to last week, and we did the passage from Juneau to Ketchikan.  I really like this route, but we don't see as much wildlife as on the one to Sitka normally.  But we started out in Endicott Arm, at the Dawes Glacier

 And then we went into Fredrick Sound, and I found some Cassin's Auklets!

 And of course some whales

 Then on down, and in Misty Fiords, I got a nice shot of this eagle

 And a Harlequin Duck

Glacier Bay Canoe Trip Video

Here's a video I made about the trip in Glacier bay with canoe and kayak.